1 Year Review: 5 Things I love about Working at a Small Company

^{My first work selfie that I ever posted to my socials, after a project for Terry Fox Foundation.}

I left a decade plus bank career in 2022 to join Pllenty – a fintech “startup” in it’s 7th year. Join me as I reflect on how the last year shaped me in my next few posts.

I want to start this series by describing five ways my role at Pllenty brings real satisfaction to my day-to-day, most of these I think will resonate with anyone working for a small company.

1. Making easily identifiable Impact

It is tough to measure the influence one person has on a corporation. We tend to celebrate corporate wins as large groups, without truly knowing how our individual acts led to a specific result.

At Pllenty (and I suspect in most small companies) it is very easy to trace one’s activities to an outcome. As a result, I can see how even my tiniest action directly link to a positive result for the company.

I review a form for five minutes, it leads to a bug fix earlier in the process.

I tidy up a slide from an old deck, it enhances all future presentations a little bit.

I read a case study on a fundraising campaign, we improve a small step in the donor experience.

Any time, any of us at Pllenty take ANY action correctly, it makes a visible positive difference, often creating a virtuous loop that is quite satisfying.

2. Constant, Sustained Momentum

A small company relies on finishing things quickly, so every team member is invested in speed. A very full plate with many deadlines looming is the stuff of sleepless nights.

So, communication happens fast.

Decisions happen fast.

Work happens fast.

We measure things in hours and days. Not weeks and months.

It is a state of existing, not for everyone but exhilarating for those who truly thrive in a “fast paced environment”.

3. Sweating only the leverageable Stuff

I no longer have time to do one-off things to perfection.

Every task I spend a lot of time on are all leverageable for the future- either directly (e.g. enhancing the way we onboard clients) or indirectly (e.g. learning about peer to peer fundraising platforms in Australia).

All other tasks fall into the adequate bucket.

4. Intense and Genuine Teamwork

When the team is small, each relationship becomes personal – for better or worse.

When someone is sick, there is genuine concerns. Conversations are have inside jokes and sentences often start with “remember when…”

Politics does not exist, because masking around the same 5 people is exhausting and unsustainable.

On the flip side, it is easy to accumulate frustrations and beefs.

Everyone remembers the “historical context” for every f*ck up. And we all know who “screwed up” when things fall apart.

However, as we know ~60% of startups fail within the first three years. Which means behind every startup that succeeds, there is ALWAYS a team of exceptional people.

Pllenty is now in it’s 7th year of surviving (and growing) and it is truly because of the exceptional individuals I work with.

And I get to work with them, learn from them, help them, support them while seeing their blunders and idiosyncrasies (and displaying mine) every day!

Even on my worst day at Pllenty, I can’t think of a better place to be.

5. Finally the Anti-boredom

I have never been this NOT bored in my life.

Even when I worked in Cap Markets risk management, arguably one of the most stressful (non front-office) bank jobs with OSFI breathing down our necks, I had days when I did little or something repetitive I didn’t want to do.

These days I have the opposite problem. I need to watch out for not burning out because of working too much.

Working with a small team with high daily stakes, there is ALWAYS a new, random challenge. Literally every day at work in my past year with Pllenty, I learned something new.

In my next posts I will describe some of the potential downsides of working at a small company and describe ways I was able to grow in this very different environment.